Apps

Adobe Photoshop Touch Is Almost Picture Perfect
May 03, 2013

With tablets possibly on track to overtake PCs within a few years, one might wonder just how that's going to happen. Can tablets really perform as well as PCs in professional environments? I for one am still unpacking my laptop when it comes to power applications like imaging. Well, Adobe claims it now delivers its core Adobe Photoshop functionality in an app for Android tablets.

Asana Positions Itself for the Enterprise
May 02, 2013

Asana on Wednesday announced Organizations, a feature that stakes its claim in the enterprise space. What is new with Organizations is its scalability; it is designed to support companies of 100 employees or more. Asana was launched by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and Google and Facebook veteran Justin Rosenstein, and there are more than a few similarities between Asana and Facebook.

All Things Appy: Top 5 Android Camera Apps
May 01, 2013

As the geek world drools over the first 13-megapixel smartphone camera -- the Android-driven Samsung Galaxy S4 -- we take a look at the current state-of-play in the must-have camera app genre for Android. Ready, set, go. Occasionally an app comes along that blows everything else away.

Yahoo Alum Will Help Shazam Tune Up for IPO
April 30, 2013

Shazam on Monday announced that former Yahoo executive Rich Riley will be its new CEO as the song identification app company prepares to launch an IPO. Riley will take over for Andrew Fisher, who had been the company's CEO since 2005. Fisher will remain at Shazam as the executive chairman. The company also recently snagged the BBC's Daniel Danker as a chief product officer.

Digging Into Garden Planning Software
April 30, 2013

When Catherine Kasper Place in Fort Wayne, Ind., needed to help refugees plan garden plots for themselves and for the organization's community supported agriculture, it turned to GrowVeg.com's Garden Planner and its affiliated iPad app, Garden Plan Pro. "It's challenging just to manage one garden," said Holly Chaille, Catherine Kasper Place's director. "This is 36 different ones, with 36 different designs."

The Future Is Now With AT&T's New Home Automation Tech
April 26, 2013

AT&T has introduced Digital Life, a home security and automation system that realizes a goal the company set more than a decade ago of creating tools that would allow people to manage lights and security systems remotely. Digital Life will allow homeowners to control appliances, lock and unlock doors, and monitor their homes remotely using a number of mobile apps.

LinkedIn Bundles a Personal Assistant Into New Contacts App
April 26, 2013

LinkedIn unveiled a new contacts application for Web and mobile users this week with the goal of helping members manage the relationships they build on the professional social network. The company is billing LinkedIn Contacts as a digital personal assistant. It will pull information from user address books, calendars, emails and previous LinkedIn activity to create a single virtual Rolodex.

All Things Appy: 5 Best Windows 8 Sports Apps
April 24, 2013

You can do a whole lot more than watch your favorite sports on television these days if you take advantage of a second screen. The concept is simple: The big TV screen provides the visual action, while your laptop or tablet dishes out in-depth analysis and social media commentary on the side. Windows 8 has some superb apps for this purpose.

Germany Levies Max Fine Against Google; Max Fine Is Piddly
April 23, 2013

Dramatic rhetoric, tiny fine. German data regulators fined Google less than $190,000 for collecting information from unsecured WiFi networks while it compiled data for Google Street View. The data scoop was, according to Germany's data chief, "one of the biggest known data protection violations in history." The fine? Hardly the biggest in history.

Reeder's a Comfy Refuge for Google's RSS Orphans
April 23, 2013

When Google announced it was killing its Reader app July 1, it not only annoyed hordes of users, it pulled the rug out from under app developers who built their livelihoods on the web software. One of those app makers is Silvio Rizzi, maker of Reeder. a free RSS program for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Like all the developers that plugged into Reader, Rizzi is facing extinction. However, he's not quite ready to go into that good night.

Android: A Second Career in Security?
April 23, 2013

Many of us have a wealth of decommissioned corporate-provisioned mobile devices: We've bought them, handed them out, and seen them used successfully for years. Now they're on their way to the great docking station in the sky. However, because these devices are already off the books adapting them for specific security functions can mean achieving certain goals practically for free.

Yahoo Weather, Email Mobile Apps Aim for Elegance
April 22, 2013

Yahoo last week unfurled two new apps that should help strengthen its mobile bona fides: the Yahoo Weather App for iPhone, iPod and iPod touch; and Yahoo Mail Apps for iPad and Android tablets. The new releases are in keeping with CEO Marissa Mayer's intention to pare Yahoo's extensive mobile portfolio to a handful of strong, user-friendly and productivity-oriented apps. Both are streamlined, and both deliver on Mayer's promise.

Hailo Is a Hellaciously Good Taxi-Hailing App
April 19, 2013

Chicagoans and Bostonians, you have a new way of hailing a cab. It's called "Hailo," and it lets you grab a taxi by app command, rather than an arm raise at the curb. Hailo is coming soon to New York and Washington, D.C., and already is available in Toronto and several European cities. Hailo is different from some other taxi apps in that its relationship is with the individual driver, not with an entire fleet.

Icelandic App Aims to Prevent Accidental Incest
April 18, 2013

Before knocking boots, knock phones. Three software engineers at the University of Iceland have designed an app to alert people if a casual encounter might in fact be casual incest. By bumping their mobile devices together, the app lets users -- and potential partners -- instantly compare their lineage, showing the nearest common ancestors. If a close relative is detected, users are alerted via an alarm and text warning.

All Things Appy: Top 5 Chrome Finance Apps
April 17, 2013

It's mid-April, and spring is in the air -- that time of year when a young man's or young lady's thoughts turn to money. Conveniently for us all, the Web browser is a fine place to organize finances, whether you want to get the process over with as fast as possible, or enjoy it in king-is-in-the-counting-house mode. Google's Chrome Web browser is resplendent with numerous add-ons fit for the purpose.

aText - Your Friendly Keystroke Slasher
April 16, 2013

Few people like typing. Even fewer like typing the same things over and over again. That dislike is at the root of aText, which lets you create your own abbreviations to speed things along. For example, a typing shortcut, or snippet, such as "jpm" could become "by John P. Mello Jr." While simple text can be used to make substitutions, you can do much more than that, too.

Report: Big Biz Shakes Off Hack Attacks
April 15, 2013

A lot of noise has been made about the consequences of data breaches for companies, but a recent survey of some of the largest U.S. businesses may have wrapped those noisemakers in a muffler. Of the 27 largest companies reporting cyberattacks in their most recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, none said they sustained any major financial losses from those net assaults.

LinkedIn's Mobile Strategy Gets a Pulse
April 12, 2013

LinkedIn on Thursday announced the $90 million acquisition of newsreader app Pulse, as the professional social networking site looks to add to its content and mobile strategies. Pulse, launched in 2010 by two Stanford University students, allows users to browse multiple media sources, including social networks, to choose the content they want to read.

Good Earth, Good Apps
April 12, 2013

When Leslie Sturgeon wanted to identify some brown spots on cucumber leaves in her greenhouse, she pulled out her phone and consulted the app she herself developed, iVeggieGarden. Before long, she'd identified the culprit -- angular leaf spot -- and could begin treating it. "We use it ourselves as a reference," said Sturgeon, owner of Moorit Software and Little Rest Farm in Brimfield, Mass.

Tripit Trips Up at the First Sign of Anything Tricky
April 12, 2013

Tripit is a frequent flier travel organizer. It claims to sculpt your mishmash of itineraries, dinner arrangements and meetings into a functioning, unified whole -- all accessible through your mobile device. The idea is that you email your airline, and other itineraries to it, and it then "does the rest." That's a big claim, and in my experience big claims in new technology concepts often don't deliver.